FRB - Federal Reserve Board - Documents

  • fedinprint.org/
  • federalreserve.gov/regreform/reform-systemic.htm
  • Commercial Bank Examination Manual - [link]
    • The Commercial Bank Examination Manual presents examination objectives and procedures that Federal Reserve System examiners follow in evaluating the safety and soundness of state member banks. Intended as guidance for planning and conducting bank examinations.

1980s

  • 1980 - FRB - Annual Statistical Digest, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System - 244p
    • (p86) - 27. Selected assets and liabilities of savings institutions - C. Life insurance companies - Millions of dollars, end of period
  • 1987 - FRB - The Growth of the Financial Guarantee Market - 19p
  • 1988 02 - FRB-NY - Quarterly Review - Estimating the Funding Gap of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation,  by Beverly Hirtle, Federal Reserve Bank of New York - [16p - link to PDF]

1990s

  • 1991 - FRB-Boston -The Financial Condition and Regulation of Insurance Companies - Conference, Series No. 35 - [link to PDFs]
    • conf35.pdf - 296p
    • conf35b.pdf - 54p
    • The Structure, Conduct, and Regulation of the Life Insurance Industry / 73
      • Kenneth M. Wright
      • Discussion / 97
        • Terence Lennon
        • Kenneth J. H. Pinkes
        • Robert E. Schneider
    • Public Policy and Life Insurance / 199
      • Gerard M. Brannon
      • Discussion
        • Joseph M. Belth
        • Earl R. Pomeroy
        • Warren Ro Wise
    • Insurance companies as financial intermediaries: risk and return
  • 1992 - FRB-Minneapolis - SPDAs and GICs: Like Money in the Bank?, by Neil Wallace and Richard M. Todd, Federal Reserve of Minneapolis - 18p
    • researchdatabase.minneapolisfed.org/concern/publications/4q77fr380
    • We argue that changes in the life insurance industry have created a nontrivial moral hazard.
      • We document the industry's shift from sales of life insurance to sales of mainly rate-of-return oriented investments like single premium deferred annuities (SPDAs) and guaranteed investment contracts (GICs).
  • 1992 12 - FRB - The Effect of Capital on Portfolio Risk at Life Insurance Companies - 34p
  • 1993 0301 - FRB-M - Guaranteeing Disaster: Moral hazard in the insurance industry. - [link]
    • Although insurance companies promise holders of SPDAs and GICs fixed returns on their investments, the true worth of these promises is not easy to ascertain.
  • 1994 - FRB - Announcements of asset-quality problems and contagion effects in the life insurance industry, by George W. Fenn and Rebel A. Cole, First version August 1992, final version October 1993, Federal Reserve Board - 29p
    • metlife v fsoc
  • 1997 - FRB - Credit Derivatives in Banking: Useful Tools for Loan Risk Management? - 31p
  • 1998 0401 - FRB - The Commercial Paper Market: Who's Minding the Shop?, By Dusan Stojanovic and Mark D Vaughan - [link]
  • 1998 10 - FRBNY - Economic Policy Review - Capital from an Insurance Company Perspective, by Robert E. Lewis, Chief Credit Officer at American International Group (AIG) - 3p

2000s

  • 2001 - FRB - An Examination of Changes in the Distribution of Wealth From 1989 to 1998:Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances - 44p
  • 2003 11 - FRB/ DOTT- Report to the Congress on Financial Holding Companies under the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act - 46p
  • 2008 03 - FRB-NY - Federal Reserve Bank of New York - Staff Reports
    Understanding the Securitization of Subprime Mortgage Credit, by Adam B. Ashcraft and Til Schuermann - 82p
  • 2009 06 - FRB -Federal Reserve System Monthly Report on Credit and Liquidity Programs and the Balance Sheet Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System - [24p-link to PDF]

2010s

  • 2011/12 - FRB - Enhanced Prudential Standards and Early Remediation Requirements for Covered Companies
  • 2012 - FRB-C - How liquid are U.S. life insurance liabilities? - 4p
  • 2013 - FRB-C - The Sensitivity of Life Insurance Firms to Interest Rate Changes - 32p  
  • 2013 04 - FRB-C - What Do U.S. Life Insurers Invest in? (No. 309) - 
  • 2014 01 - FRB-C - Understanding the Relationship Between Life Insurers and the Federal Home Loan Banks (No. 318) - [link]
  • 2014 0930 - FRB - Federal Reserve Board announces it will begin a quantitative impact study to evaluate potential effects of its revised regulatory capital framework on insurance holding companies - [link]
  • 2015 - FRB - Self-Fulfilling Runs: Evidence from the US Life Insurance Industry - 52p
  • 2016 - FRB-B -Did Life Insurers Benefit from TARP or Regulatory Forbearance during the Financial Crisis of 2008–2009 - 43p
  • 2016 - FRB-C -The Life Insurance Industry and Systemic Risk: A Bond Market Perspective,  By Anna Paulson and Richard J. Rosen - 37p
  • bostonfed.org/-/media/Documents/conference/35/conf35.pdf
  • 2016 - FRB - The resolution of a systemically important insurance company during the Great Depression [National Surety Company], by Jonathan Rose - 36p 
  • 2017 - FRB-C - What Explains the Decline in Life Insurance Ownership? - [Dowload-link-20p]  ---  [link]
  • 2018 - FRB-P - Nontraditional Insurance and Risks to Financial Stability:  Do insurance companies pose a threat to financial stability? Historically, the answer has been no. But the insurance industry’s expansion into nontraditional activities has prompted reconsideration., Yarib Keitner - 8p
  • 2019 - FRB - Over-the-Counter Market Liquidity and Securities Lending - 61p
  • 2019 05 - FRB - Assessing the size of the risks posed by life insurers' nontraditional liabilities1 - [link]
  • 2019 12 (Revised) / (2013 10) - Fire-Sale Spillovers and Systemic Risk - (No. 645) - 116p

 2020s

  • 2020 11 - FRB - Financial stability report - Leverage - [link]
  • 2020 12 - FRB - Global Insurance Regulatory or Supervisory Forums - [link]
  • 2020 12 - FRB / DOTT- Report to the Congress: Efforts of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System with Respect to Global Insurance Regulatory or Supervisory Forums in 2019 - 23p
  • 2021 0526 - At the National Association of Insurance Commissioners International Insurance Forum (via prerecorded video) - Vice Chair for Supervision Randal K. Quarles - [link]
  • 2022 - FRB - Credit Default Swaps, byAntulio N. Bomfim - 27p
  • 2022 - FRB - Financial Stability Report - 86p
    • Leverage at life insurers remained near its highest level of the past two decades (figure 3.6).
      • Life insurers continued to invest heavily in corporate bonds, collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), and CRE debt, which leaves their capital positions vulnerable to sudden drops in the value of these risky assets.
      • Gradually rising interest rates improve the profitability outlook of life insurers, as their liabilities generally have longer effective durations than their assets, and higher interest rates may reduce life insurers’ incentives to invest in riskier assets.
      • However, a large and unexpected increase in interest rates could induce policyholders to surrender their contracts at a higher-than-expected rate.
      • If the increase in surrenders is substantial enough, it could put downward pressure on life insurers’ financial performance.
      • 2022 0512 - ThinkAdvisor - Treasury Secretary Worries About Leverage at Life Insurers, by Allison Bell - [link]
  • 2023 - FRB-STL - Understanding the Speed and Size of Bank Runs in Historical Comparison - Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Synopses, 2023, No. 12 - 5p